Permalink: https://revcom.us/a/683/statement-on-the-inauguration-of-joe-biden-en.html
January 20, 2021 | revcom.us
Today Joe Biden was inaugurated as president of the United States, and Kamala Harris became vice president. This followed months of lies by Donald Trump claiming that he, Trump, had won. And it followed an armed fascist coup—an attempt by forces called forth and led by Trump to overturn the result at its scheduled final certification of the vote on January 6 in the Congress. Biden now has the reins of office. Trump can no longer wield state power to consolidate fascism.
Had Trump succeeded in this, the consequences could have been incalculable horror—including the elimination of democratic and civil rights.
The fact that people decisively voted Trump out and that Trump could not overturn the vote is important, and very good. The fact that fascism no longer has in its claws the executive branch of the most powerful country in the world is very good. It is a good day for humanity, and it is good day for any struggle for progressive change.
At the same time, 75 million people voted for the fascist, Trump. The fascists continue to dominate other critical branches of the government, federal and state, and continue to infest law enforcement and the military. The Christian fascist network of schools, churches, media and political action funds, as well as the fascist media more generally, remain intact. This is real.
Biden’s inauguration posed a stark contrast to the past four years of Trump and many people felt that. Yet Biden’s calls for unity and his claims that America is essentially “good” cannot cover over the real crimes of this country, under Democrat and Republican alike, nor can those claims overcome the profound divisions that exist in this country… divisions that are inextricably woven into the real historical fabric and actual everyday functioning of this society. They cannot put the forces back in the bottle that have both driven forward and been called forth by this fascism—economic, social and political forces.
Further: Biden’s talk of “systemic racism” cannot forever hide the name of the system that birthed, fed and requires this racism—capitalism-imperialism. His talk of “restoring American leadership” in the world cannot change the bloody, plundering record of the “leadership” of that same imperialist system for centuries.
There is much more to say on the horrors of the normal functioning of this system and the fascism it gave rise to, and especially on what is the solution to all this—an actual revolution on the basis of the new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian.
As we said earlier this week, Bob Avakian has
developed a way out of this madness—a strategy for an actual revolution, and on that basis the vision of a new society, concretized in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, which BA authored. It is a fact that, nowhere else, in any actual or proposed founding or guiding document of any government, is there anything like not only the protection but the provision for dissent and intellectual and cultural ferment that is embodied in this Constitution, while this has, as its solid core, a grounding in the socialist transformation of the economy, with the goal of abolishing all exploitation, and the corresponding transformation of the social relations and political institutions, to uproot all oppression, and the promotion, through the educational system and in society as a whole, of an approach that will “enable people to pursue the truth wherever it leads, with a spirit of critical thinking and scientific curiosity, and in this way to continually learn about the world and be better able to contribute to changing it in accordance with the fundamental interests of humanity.”
At this crucial time, it will matter to read the accompanying piece, “What Gave Rise to the Fascism of Trump… And Why This Will NOT Go Away,” and dig into and reflect on the work by Bob Avakian it points to. We will be saying more soon. Come to revcom.us on Monday morning.
Then, next Thursday, January 28, @ 5 PM, we will be presenting a special YouTube program on the current situation and what is to be done.
On Sunday, January 31, tune into a special Livestream to raise funds for the Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour at 6 PM EST / 3 PM PST. Thursday, February 4, the “Second Season” of The RNL—REVOLUTION NOTHING LESS—SHOW premieres. Catch up now on last year’s shows.